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Eriksen lost the ball in the middle of the park to Kevin Strootman who broke through and put the ball on a plate for Jeremain Lens to roll a shot into an empty net.

The Dane was to make up for that error minutes into the second half when he broke down the right and with no PSV defender closing him down and with his target in the middle marked, Eriksen fooled everyone by hitting a powerful low near-post effort which flew into the net.

The home side levelled for a second time after 69 minutes when a free-kick from Dries Mertens hit the front post and Lens was there to sweep home from close range.

For the third time in the game Ajax hit the front, and this time there was no way back for PSV. On the counter, Boerrigter outpaced Erik Pieters and with Boy Waterman stranded passed the ball into the net.

The American scored the first of his brace of penalties after 28 minutes - 60 seconds after Anour Kali was shown a straight red - before Jan Wuytens became the second Utrecht player to see red.

Altidore scored again from the spot, and just three minutes later and he completed his treble.

Mike van der Hoorn put through his own net on the stroke of half-time to complete a miserable half for the visitors, who would go on to concede two more in the second period through Markus Henriksen (61) and Markus Henriksen (90).

Feyenoord are six points off top spot after they could only draw 1-1 at RKC Waalwijk.